Photo: Cher V · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Miyazaki, Kyushu
Palm trees on the Pacific, shrines in sea caves and the warmest golf winter in Japan.
Why Miyazaki
Miyazaki is the sunny southeast corner of Kyushu: a small capital city on a long Pacific coast where phoenix palms line the roads, surfers paddle out at dawn and the winter never really arrives. It is the Japan few overseas travelers see — unhurried, coastal, close to the myths of the country's founding.
It is also Japan's golf country. The mild climate keeps the courses open and green from November to March, the Dunlop Phoenix tournament is played here every November, and resort courses such as Phoenix Country Club and the Tom Watson course at Seagaia sit twenty minutes from the city. Golf mornings, coast afternoons, chicken nanban at night.
Good for
6 places
The handful that shape a first visit — each with the tip we give every traveler.
Photo: 松岡明芳 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Nature
A tiny subtropical island joined to the beach by a footbridge, ringed by the 'Devil's Washboard' — wave-cut rock ridges that run out to sea like corrugated iron. A small shrine hides among the palms in the middle; the beach on the mainland side is where the city surfs.
Our tip — Go at low tide to walk out on the rock shelves; twenty minutes from the city by train.
Photo: MaedaAkihiko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Temple
A vermilion shrine built inside a cave in the cliffs of the Nichinan coast, reached down a stone stairway with the Pacific crashing below. Visitors throw clay 'lucky balls' at a target rock in the surf — men left-handed, women right-handed — for a wish.
Our tip — Forty minutes south by car; combine it with the coast road and Sun Messe Nichinan.
Photo: ja:User:Sanjo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Golf
Phoenix Country Club has hosted the Dunlop Phoenix — Japan's richest tour event — since 1974; next door, the Tom Watson Golf Course at Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort runs through pine forest to the sea. Both are twenty minutes from the city and playable all winter.
Our tip — Book tee times 60 days out for November to February; caddie-less carts are standard, English scorecards available.
Town
Seven full-size moai on a hill above the Pacific — the only replicas in the world authorised by Easter Island's elders, carved in thanks for Japanese help restoring the originals. Kitsch on paper, oddly moving in the sea light.
Our tip — Best in the late afternoon when the moai face the sun.
Photo: そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Town
A 37-metre 'Tower of Peace' from 1940 on a hill above the city, and behind it the Haniwa Garden — four hundred clay figures copied from ancient burial mounds, scattered through a forest of camphor trees.
Our tip — Ten minutes from downtown; the clearest city view is from the terrace at dusk.
Photo: ja:User:Sanjo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Food
Chicken nanban — fried chicken in sweet vinegar with tartar sauce — was invented here; charcoal-grilled jidori chicken comes black-edged and smoky; Miyazaki beef has won Japan's wagyu 'Olympics' three times running; and from April the Taiyo no Tamago mangoes arrive.
Our tip — Nishitachi, the bar quarter west of the station, is where locals eat — go early, the good counters fill by seven.
Trips
Getting there
When to go
Beyond Tokyo
Tell us your dates and who is coming — a designer replies with a plan that fits Tokyo and Miyazaki into one trip.
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